Tamar El-Or (; born in 1955) is an Israeli sociologist and author holding the Sarah Allen Shaine chair of

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

and

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

.Faculty profile
Hebrew University, retrieved 2012-07-21.

Research

El-Or's Ph.D. dissertation was a study of

ultra-Orthodox Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...

women in Israel that was published as a book, ''Educated and Ignorant'', in both

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and English. Therein, El-Or discusses the possibility of educating for ignorance, or teaching certain groups (in this case, girls and women) to expect and respect intellectual restrictions. This research in

gender and religion Gender, defined as the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity, and religion, a system of beliefs and practices followed by a community, share a multifaceted relationship that influences both ...

debated

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

questions of choice, empowerment, and resistance via the life of Orthodox women. El-Or's fieldwork and findings on the ultra-Orthodox community led to research on the modern (national) Orthodox community in Israel, and to the book ''Next Year, I'll Know More''. This book describes and analyzes a feminist revolution via knowledge among young women from the modern Orthodox community. A third project followed these two and was conducted among the Sephardi Mizrahi community, thus covering all three major communities that comprise Israeli Orthodoxy. This research became another book, ''Reserved seating: Gender, ethnicity, and religion in Israel''. It examines questions of class and ethnicity among women from the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Orthodox communities, and those that revolve around orthodoxy. These

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

s form a trilogy on gender, religion, and the meanings of knowing. In 2009-2010, El-Or wrote a short essay on the pedagogy of Tania learning among women from the

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

sect of

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (; ; ), is a dynasty in Hasidic Judaism. Belonging to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) branch of Orthodox Judaism, it is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, as well as one of ...

(Lubavitz), as well as a theoretical comparative work on veiling in Israel, France, Turkey, Belgium, and Morocco. El-Or has written numerous articles on issues related to her main research fields, as well as articles on other issues, such as Israeli motherhood, anthropological methodology, and sociological aspects of literature and the

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

, etc.

Selected publications

Books

* El-Or, Tamar. 1994. Educated and Ignorant: Ultraorthodox Jewish Women and their World . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Pub. (Published in Hebrew, 1992, by Am Oved). * El-Or, Tamar. 2002. Next Year I Will Know More: Identity and Literacy Among Young Orthodox Women in Israel. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. (Published in Hebrew, 1998, by Am Oved).

Selected articles

* El-Or, Tamar.1991."Captured Babies: The Ultraorthodox Perception of Non Orthodox Jews". ''Megamot'' 34(1):104–121 (Hebrew). * El-Or, Tamar.1992. "Do You Really Know How They Make Love: The Limits of Intimacy with Ethnographic Informants". ''Qualitative Sociology'' 15(1):53–73. * El-Or, Tamar.1993. "You Can't See Iceland from Shiloh: The Rechelim Case". ''Alpaim'' 7:59–81. (Hebrew).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Or, Tamar 1955 births Living people Israeli sociologists Tel Aviv University alumni Bar-Ilan University alumni Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem